International:

Blair To Vow Support For The Terrorists

(oops, I mean -Blair to announce Iraq withdrawal plan)

Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, the BBC reported. Blair will also tell the House of Commons during his regular weekly appearance that a total of about 3,000 British soldiers will have left southern Iraq by the end of 2007, if the security there is sufficient, the British Broadcasting Corp. said, quoting government officials who weren't further identified.

The announcement comes even as President Bush implements an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq. But Blair said Sunday that Washington had not put pressure on London to maintain its troop numbers. The BBC said Blair was not expected to say when the rest of Britain's forces would leave Iraq. Britain currently has about 7,100 soldiers there.

Blair's Downing Street office refused to comment on the BBC report.

Female Pakistani Minister Shot Dead for Refusing to Wear Veil

A Pakistani minister and woman’s activist was shot dead Tuesday by an Islamic extremist for refusing to wear the veil.

Zilla Huma Usman, the minister for social welfare in Punjab province and an ally of President Pervez Musharraf, was killed as she was about to deliver a speech to dozens of party activists, by a “fanatic”, who believed that she was dressed inappropriately and that women should not be involved in politics, officials said. Read on...

Cheney gets a hostile reception in Tokyo

Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, landed in Tokyo last night for what promised to be a frosty series of meetings, after weeks of outspoken criticism of American policy from within the Japanese Government. Read more.

National:

Lawmakers Want Answers to Reports of Poor Troop Conditions
Lawmakers urge Defense Secretary Robert Gates to respond to reports of poor treatment and conditions for injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Everyone Supports The Troops

Over the weekend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed military personnel stationed in Baghdad. She told the troops that everyone -- including critics of the administration's Iraq policy -- believes that "the sacrifice and the labor of our men and women here has been honorable." She called the debate over escalation a sign of a "great democracy." She stated, "And the final thing I want to say is I know that a lot's going on in Washington and that you're hearing it. A lot's going on because we are a great democracy. And people have their views and they're going to express them. ... By the way, all of them know that the sacrifice and the labor of our men and women here has been honorable."

Rice's comments contradict earlier claims from the administration that a debate on Iraq policy would be "detrimental from the standpoint of the troops." Her words echoed those of Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace, who said the troops understand the "debate's being carried on by patriotic people who care about them and who care about their mission."

In Other News...

Despite the Bush administration's refrain that it is not considering military action against Iran, the BBC reports, "US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure."

Senate Finance Committee Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has warned that he may block the recently passed minimum wage bill unless a larger tax cut package is included.

Yesterday's raid on a U.S. outpost in Baghdad are a "possible foreshadowing of attacks to come," as insurgents target lightly fortified and "relatively isolated" outposts that are an "integral part" of the new U.S. strategy in Baghdad to immerse U.S. forces in Iraqi communities.

From The Right: Donald Lambro: Success st****s fly under the radar If this is the winter of America's discontent, our troubles are largely overseas where the Iraq war overshadows so many positive, even breathtaking advances here at home.

From The Left: Gareth Porter: Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal

Karl Rove, then White House senior political advisor for President George W. Bush, received a copy of the secret Iranian proposal for negotiations with the United States from former Republican Congressman Bob Ney in early May 2003, according to an Iranian-American scholar who was then on his Congressional staff.

Quote Of The Day: "The problem is that his gut-level bond with the American public has been seriously damaged and may be lost."

Bush strategist Matthew Dodd, in a piece for Texas Monthly, on President Bush's legacy.

(Sources: AP, Yahoo, BBC, ThePolitico, TimesOnline, USDeptOfState, LATimes, DefenseLink.mil, Reuters, CenterForAmericanProgress, MiddleEastOnline, Rollcall, TruthOut, FOXNews, TownHall, TexasMonthly, PoliticalWire)